The Drovers Old Time Medicine Show - Prater's Creek Gazette

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Arts and Music (Cont.)

The Prater's Creek Gazette

15th Issue Fall 2007 Page #7

Mask

cello

books

THE BEST MOVIES OF THE PAST 25 YEARS (That I Have Seen)

BOOGIE NIGHTS - (1997, Rated R) Paul Thomas Anderson, the film’s writer and director, pulls off the difficult task of making a movie about the porn business with sympathetic characters. He’s aided by an excellent cast, which was strong then, and is an all-star cast now.

CHASING AMY - (1997, Rated R) Written and directed by Kevin Smith. Stars Ben Afleck and Jason Lee as comic book artists. They meet another comic book artist, played by Joey Lauren Adams, and Afleck falls in love with her but discovers she is a lesbian. She falls for him, but he can’t handle her hetero past. Like all of Smith’s movies, there are heavy doses of profane subject matter, but his writing makes the subjects seem funny and thought provoking. And ain’t that what this list is about?

CLOCKWATCHERS - (1997, Rated R) Four female temp workers in a big city office make it through the mind numbing work days and hang out after work. Great cast with Lisa Kudrow, and Toni Collete, and the always awesome Parker Posey.

THE HOUSE OF YES - (1997, Rated R) This movie is huge to me because it is the first Parker Posey film I saw, and she plays “Jackie O”, a Hyannis Port reared debutante who’s a little crazy. Maybe because she is in love with her twin brother. Or maybe because their father killed himself the day JFK was murdered.

HENRY FOOL - (1997, Rated R) Written and directed by Hal Hartley. Simon Grim, a garbage man, who still lives at home with his mom and sister, becomes a writer at the urgings of their tenant, Henry Fool, a man who has big ideas of writing but no talent. Simon becomes the toast of the NYC literary world while some think his work is pornography. The last 20 minutes of this movie keeps this from being one of the greatest movies of all time. But as it is, it is one of the greatest of the last 25 years.

THE YEAR OF THE HORSE - (1997, Rated R) Directed by Jim Jarmusch, this film is a tour documentary featuring Neil Young and Crazy Horse. I’ll never forget one morning I woke up at 5am on a Saturday and flipped the TV on and Siskel and Ebert were reviewing this movie! Ebert said “ most of the movie is concert footage with just the band standing around the drummer, bobbing up and down, occasionally there’s Neil singing, playing these long songs with drawn out endings”. Siskel said, “yeah that’s what makes this movie, and this band, great!” Gene Siskel gained a lot of respect from me that day. Even more than when he told the drunken John Wayne story on Letterman that time.

CELEBRITY - (1998, Rated R) Directed by Woody Allen, and not one of his best, but it’s a great movie because of Winona Ryder. When the camera first sees her, we see why she is the most beautiful woman of all time.

HAPPINESS - (1998, Rated R) Another Todd Solondz classic. This maybe his funniest film. An excellent cast with Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Lara Flynn Boyle, Jane Adams, and Dylan Baker.

SAVING PRIVATE RYAN - (1998, Rated R) I’m usually not too keen on movies that are based on historical facts that I have watched documentaries on, written term papers on since grade school, etc. but like Tora! Tora! Tora! I was a big fan of this movie. Directed by Steven Spielberg, this movie with it’s plot wrapped up in the landings on D-Day was so powerful that WW-II vets broke down and told their wives of 40 years or more about their own stories from that war for the first time.

THE OPPOSITE OF SEX - (1998, Rated R) Christina Ricci is perfect in this role and Lyle Lovett plays a Texas sheriff!

SCHOOL DAZE - (1998, Rated R) Spike Lee musical set at an all black southern college, and the racism within the black community between the “Jiggaboos” and the “Wannabes”.

SOUTH PARK: BIGGER LONGER & UNCUT - (1999,Rated R) “Blame Canada! Blame Canada! It seems that everything's gone wrong since Canada came along. Blame Canada! Blame Canada! When Canada is dead and gone, there'll be no more Celine Dion!” If you are disgusted by the television show, well, the movie will be 10x more offensive to you. But you have to love a movie where Satan is Saddam Hussein’s @#$%^! (rhymes with witch).

AMERICAN BEAUTY - (1999, Rated R) I didn’t see this movie until after it had won the Academy Award for Best Picture. I went on a Wednesday at the dollar movie to see if it was any good. Turned out to be one of the greatest movies of all time.

Before I saw it, I had never heard of Mena Suvari or Thora Birch, and had never seen a movie with Kevin Spacey in it. Now I am a lifelong fan of each actor.

BUENA VISTA SOCIAL CLUB - (1999, Rated G) Documentary by Wim Wenders of Ry Cooder’s assembling of some of Cuba’s greatest pre-Castro era musicians. The Buena Vista Social Club was an actual member’s club in Havana in the 40’s where the musicians in the film hung out and performed. Some of the musicians had given up performing in protest of Castro, and had not performed for 50 years. At the end of the movie, at a concert in NYC, a member of the audience has a Cuban flag. As all of the musicians are on stage for the finale, singing a song about freedom, one of the singers goes down and gets the flag, bringing it up on stage waving it. It is one of the most uplifting moments I’ve ever witnessed.

HIGH LONESOME - (1999, Rated BG) “It was perfect. ”(Jimmy Martin describing listening to Bill Monroe on the Opry radio broadcasts when Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs were Bluegrass Boys) The great documentary on bluegrass that actually played on the big screen in some bigger cities. If you are on this website, and haven’t seen this film, get your butt out of this site and go order it online! NOW!

OFFICE SPACE - (1999, Rated R) Written and directed by Mike Judge, and based on his animated shorts Milton that often appeared on Saturday Night Live and MTV’s Liquid Television. “Hi, Peter. What's happening? We need to talk about your TPS reports.”

SWEET and LOWDOWN - (1999,Rated R) Written and directed by Woody Allen, and starring Sean Penn as a talented but screw up of musician in the 1920’s who is always in the shadow of Django Rheinhart as the best guitarist in the world. Gretchen Mol is so good as his love interest.

BEST IN SHOW - (2000, Rated PG-13) The Spinal Tap gang does to the Westminster Dog Show what they did to heavy metal. And Parker Posey is, of course, awesome!

HIGH FIDELITY - (2000, Rated R) John Cusack is an audiophile trying to figure out love. Has great music references of Captain Beefheart!

MALENA - (2000, Rated R) Italian made film (it has English subtitles) starring the incredibly sexy Monica Belluci. Set in 1940, the title character is left alone soon after her marriage as her husband goes off to fight in the war, and she tries to cope in the town she has just moved to, as every man and boy is going crazy over her. And you will too.

O BROTHER WHERE ARE THOU? - (2000, Rated PG-13) Directed by the Cohen brothers. Oh, a lot of bluegrass fans were so worried that this was going to make people think of toothless hillbillies when they thought of bluegrass. And didn’t these poor souls just finally lay that stereotype to rest after 30 years of Deliverance? Well, to quote George Clooney’s character in the film, they’re “as dumb as bag of hammers”.

Of course the soundtrack was as big as the film. When I saw it in the theater, people stayed in their seats as the credits rolled and “Angel Band” by The Stanley Brothers played. It was the greatest cinematic moment of my life.

And at every gig The Drovers Old Time Medicine Show plays now, they get asked to “play the song from that movie”!

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